South Carolina and Baylor Unite in Prayer After Sweet 16 Matchup

As the final buzzer sounded on another improbable NCAA tournament victory for South Carolina, players started jumping up and down in celebration Friday night. But it wasn’t a typical celebration for a team reaching the Elite Eight for the first time in school history.

The jumping ended almost before it started and both teams moved toward center court. That’s when TBS announcers Verne Lundquist and Jim Spanarkel noticed something different was happening.

“Interesting,” Lundquist said.

“The celebration started and Perry Clark, one of the assistant coaches, came out and said, ‘Calm down,’” he continued.

“And look at this. This is a remarkable scene of … sportsmanship,” Lundquist said as both teams united arm-in-arm and bowed their heads in prayer.

South Carolina may have won the game 70-50, but both teams have much to be proud of. Not often in college basketball do you see such a public display of faith by both teams in unison.

The fact that the announcers were so surprised and uncomfortable talking about what was happening on the court is proof that we need much more of it. Maybe next time it happens the announcers will call it by name — prayer — instead of just making vague references to sportsmanship.